July 16, 2012

KOLKATA:
The delayed monsoon has got vegetable price spiralling. Moreover, middlemen in
the agro-marketing network of the state adding woes to plight of common men by
maximising profit with a yawning gap between wholesale market price and that of
the retail markets.

The
agricultural marketing minister Arup Roy admitted that middle-men have once
again been playing havoc with the price of perishable commodities in urban an
semi-urban markets. ""There is a task force to monitor the price. I
have to check out what their findings are. I am indeed anxious with the price
getting out of control. I will hold an emergency meeting on Monday," he
added.

Besides,
the task force a ministerial committee was formed to keep a tab on the
commodity price at different markets. The committee has animal resource
minister Nur-e-Alam Chowdhury, agricultural marketing minister Arup Roy and
food processing minister Ujjwal Biswas.

The
delayed monsoon has already taking toll of agriculture productions. Excessive
heat and lack of rain has led to drying up of lot of agricultural products.
Vegetables like parwal is the biggest victim of this extreme weather, said
Shankar Kamila, secretary of agriculture marketers association. A lot of
vegetables could not be sent to market from the fields.

But
much of this price-rise was engineered artificially by middle-men. The yawning
gap between the wholesale and retail price is one of indicators how the chain
of middle-men are causing price-rise at their will. Two chains of middlemen
work one between the farmers and whole-sellers and other from whole-sellers and
retailers.

"Even
though the chain between the whole-seller and retailer is a shorter one, the
price difference can show the lack of monitoring on the markets by the
government," said Amit Sinha, a consumers' rights activist.

According
to whole-sale and retail marketing sources, the gap between the wholesale and
retail price of perishable commodities are gradually increasing with the time.
If the whole-sale price of parwal is Rs 8 per kg, it is selling at anything
between Rs 20 and 30 at retail markets. It is worse for okra. The wholesale
price is Rs 8-9, but the retail price is Rs 30-40.

In
case of potato and onion, which are more-or-less regulated and can be stocked
in cold-storage, the retail and wholesale price difference is not that huge.
However, Patit Paban De, a potato expert said, ""The potato price is
expected to rise further with a huge loss of productivity is south India.

""Some
vegetables prices have gone up so high that it has been becoming increasingly
difficult to strike a balance in the food budget for most of the
buyers,"" said Rabindranath Koley of Kankurgachhi VIP market. The
green chili has crossed Rs 100 per kg. I can't remember this happening in my
life-time, he added.

Why
is this gap ever widening? According to a senior officer, the Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee earlier took the price-rise seriously. She visited some markets
and asked the chief secretary Samar Ghosh to inquire into the abnormal price
rise. The government then periodically checked the market price and carried out
raids. It yielded results. But with the time, that monitoring mechanism got
rusty.

KOLKATA:
Fuel prices haven't alone pushed up transportation costs. A steep rise in toll
by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is also responsible. However,
transporters complained that the hike is not uniform across toll plazas and
thus creates confusion. Such a steep rise, transporters said, would result in a
further price rise of all commodities.

According
to NHAI memo 13013/630/CO/1112 /GC, dated March 31, 2012, toll taxes have been
modified upwards. However, for transporters, the toll fees have not been
uniformly modified. For instance, on National Highway II, a truck had to cough
up Rs 165 to cross each toll plaza. Now, it needs to pay Rs 265 at Dhulagarh
toll plaza and Rs 245 while crossing Debra toll plaza.

In
case of mini buses, too, the toll has risen from Rs 85 to Rs 120. For small
cars, it has gone up from Rs 30 to Rs 75. "Naturally, the end-users like
you and me are the ultimate victims of such upward revision of toll tax.
Earlier, from Kolkata to Mumbai, we had to pay Rs 2,500 as toll tax per trip
per carriage. Now, we are paying a little more than Rs 4,000," said
Satyajit Majumdar, general secretary of Federation of West Bengal Truck Owners'
Association.

"The
problem is, NHAI does not maintain any transparency as far as its toll revisions
are concerned. We have been demanding for uniform toll across the country. This
would leave little room for confusion. But that has not been done," said
Shyamal Dasgupta, general secretary of Truck Owners' Association.

The
problem is even worse for short-trip makers like buses. "By paying Rs 85,
we used to have multiple passages through a toll plaza in a span of 12 hours.
But now, we have to cough up Rs Rs 120 for one up and one down trip. Even if we
have time to cross the toll plaza once more, we have to pay Rs 120 again. This
has made our situation very difficult with bus fares remaining constant over
the years," said Mini Bus operator Shiladitya Sarkar.

According
to NHAI sources, the upward revision of the toll is due to escalation of cost
for maintenance and road construction. NHAI has outsourced the collection of
toll across the country.

The
highways ministry expects approximately Rs 840 crore rise in toll revenue from
roads and bridges on national highways (NH), as more stretches come under the toll
network. Toll revenue may touch Rs 3,627 crore in 2012-13 from Rs 3,554 crore
during the last financial year, because of this upward revision.

Almost
95% of this revenue will come from roads owned by the National Highways
Authority of India (NHAI). Sources in the authority said the increase in toll
revenue also includes the premium that NHAI has got from awarding projects in
2011 and 2012. The authority has earned at least Rs 2,300 crore as premium from
awarding projects during the current financial year.

The
premium is the amount that private developers pay annually to the NHAI.
Moreover, the annual premium amount increases by 5% for the entire concession
period. "We also expect more stretches, which we will be awarding to
private players for maintenance and collecting toll to private developers will
fetch premium. We will have enough funds to take care of our financial needs
for the next fiscal year. We have also raised Rs 10,000 crore from the markets
with us for investment," said a senior NHAI official. He added that the
impact of premium would be visible in the next 2-3 years. NHAI also expects
revenues from fuel cess for highways sector to be around Rs 8,400 crore in
2012-13.